However, it is evident in a minority of cases that a revision by Lawrence is prompted solely by the need to remedy some local effect caused by Garnett′s deletion, and there, clearly, Lawrence′s MS text is, in principle, to be preferred.

Previous editions of World Development Indicators used revision 2, first published in 1948. Revision 3 was completed in 1989, and many countries now use it. But revision 2 is still widely used for compiling cross-country data.